New 75. Suggestions?

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I have a 10, 30 and 55. The smaller two are community, and the third is a cichlid tank that has bred 2 sets ...

I have a 10, 30 and 55. The smaller two are community, and the third is a cichlid tank that has bred 2 sets of babies. The new tank will have a Magnum 350 canister filter. I really want something different, not just another community tank, you know? Open to any ideas.

Hmm, a 75 would be a great size for a Florida biotope community. Lay down 40 lbs of topsoil, 25 lbs of crushed coral, some hunks of limestone (tufa would be best), then an inch thick layer of 3 to 5 mm dark gravel. Plant heavily (HEAVILY!!!) with Valisnera spiralis or americana along the back and sides. Put a couple of swordplants in there (not sure what a good species for this would be - I'd go with Amazon swords and tell people they were natives.) Use Saggitaria subulata (Dwarf sags) to make a nice foreground, and maybe some hornwort to add some fuzzy texture. Maybe some java moss or Fontinalis antipyretica (Willow Moss) on some stones scattered about the midground. Also, in the back corners, get some fast growing stems. Hygrophilia species, while not strictly native, are perfect for this. They grow like mad. H. polysperma, H. corymbosa (I like the narrow leaf Angustifolia variety) or H. difformis (Water wisteria)

Set the temp around 74. I'd set a fairly substantial cannister filter with the spraybar and intakes at opposite ends to get a bit of current longways. You'll need about 2 watts/gallon of lighting. A pair of dual tube T-8 shoplights ($12.95 at walmart) with cool white bulbs will give you 160 watts or so of really nice light. If you set it up this way, you'll only need to do water changes every 4 months or so. In lieu of the water changes, though, you'll need to trim the plants at least weekly.

Fish (and you thought I'd never get there.): Get 3 male and 10 or 13 wild type Sailfin Mollies (Poecillia latippina), a male and 3 female Jordinella floridae (Florida flagfish). If you can supply live or frozen food no less than 3 times weekly, consider Everglades pygmy sunfish (Elassoma evergladei) and blue finned killies (they come in with ghost shrimp a lot.)

For catfish, you could either go with madtoms, or rely on the fact that Florida is just chock full of introduced species. Corydoras aeneus (common bronze cories) and C. paleatus are both tolerant of slightly subtropical temperatures. If you want to get really fancy, I am told that Longeared sunfish are relatively easy to keep as well.

So that's one option.

One that I have been DYING to do: you'll need a good lid with no gaps. Get some red slate or shale and buid up a nice rick and cave system on each side. Try to mimic the Montana badlands. Top the stacs of rocks with Riccia, Pellia, or Java Moss. Put some long, thin, driftwood with Java Fern tied out near the tip stretching out from the rock stacks over toward the middle. Use a red or beige gravel. Plant crypts (C. wendtii, C. becketti, C. undulatus) or Anuibias around the base of the stacks and some vals along the back. I'd use a cannister filter here too, or a big HOB like an Emperor 400 or an Aquaclear 110. You'll need to cover the waterfall with needlpoint grid, though to seal up all the gaps. Why you ask? One of the fish I am about to mention is one of those esacpe artist types.

Temperature around 78. You could probably get away with one duall bulb fixture on this (though I would go with 2).

Fish: 9 Skunk Loaches. 30 Tiger barbs. MAYBE 2 chinese algae eaters.

Water changes 30 to 50% weekly or 50 to 70% bi-weekly.

For extra silliness, if you can lay hands on models of the cars from Deathrace 2000, and make them with aquarium safe glue (crazyglue works) and paint, one or two of those would take the tank to the level of kitsch that rides the line between tacky and too cool for words.

One more:
If you have friends that are deer hunters, get 18 or so deer heads from them. Boil the flesh off them. Set up the tank with a reverse under gravel filter, a couple of internal filters (like fulvals or eheim aquaballs), and a good HOB or two. Do an Mbuna tank with deer skulls in place of rocks. You could talk to other folks to get precisely the mix of fish, but peacocks, Rusties, Socofolis (sp?), Venestus. Pack 'em in there (that's why the serious filtration).

This will need a weekly 50 to 70% water change to keep healthy. (Or 10 to 20% daily, but don't do that unless you can set yorself up an automated water changer.)

Now that I think about it, a 75 would be a good size for a tangaykia community:
Rockstacks at each end and a smaller one in the middle. (lots of caves. Maybe want to put a core of PVS pipes under the stacks.) Coral sand scattered with shells (Whale Eyes are good, Escargot are good. I've been using Murex and Whelk in some of my tanks, and those seem to work OK too.)

Use calcium bearing rocks to block off a section for planting across the back of the tank, I'd go with about a 6" strip, and I'd put topsoil under the sand back there. Plant that with Vals. Tie some java fern and or anubias into the rockwork (you can tie the plants to the smaller rocks and tuck them in after you do your scaping.)

6 Julidochromis transcriptus or dickfeldi (marlieri would get too big. I'm not familiar enough wirtrh regani or ornatus to recommend one way or the other.)
6 Neolamprologus lelupi
8 to 12 Lamprologus brevis, multifasciatus, ocellatus, stapperis, meeli, similius, or the shell dweller of your choice (and twice as many shells as fish.)
10 Cyprichomis leptosoma (make sure you get one of the smaller varieties)
1 Altolamprologus calvus
3 Synodontis petricola.

Incidentally, this would be very expensive to set up. Not obscene, mind you, but many of these are $20 fish.